Trail Report: 7th October 2012.

It’s been a year since Hurtwood Trails was dragged kicking and screaming back into life. Although there are those who do not appreciate the way we build trails, our building methods have time and again shown the trails we have worked on to be the driest on the hills, particularly during our monsoon Summer, while other trails resembled swamps.

Today the work focused on drainage clearance for the sections of trail that were built at the end of the last decade. These sections were built to replace the old trail that used to go over the Iron Age hill fort boundary that sits on top of Holmbury hill. This part of the trail has had no maintenance since it was built, so all the old drainage holes were cleared out which should reduce the amount of puddling on the trail.

While this work can go unnoticed to the mountain bikers that use the trail, it is often the least glamorous of trail building tasks, but also one of the most important. What will be noticed and is a little more glamorous to build is the little berm that has been built on one of the corners.